Rarely considered today is the fact that the world's first airmen were airshipmen, climbing aboard balloons, blimps, and dirigibles in the service of their country. Ces Mowthorpe, a leading authority on World War I aviation, focuses on the early days of airship service in this history, with black and white photos and firsthand accounts by airshipmen from England, Germany, Italy, and the United States. Beginning in Paris in the 1890s, Mowthorpe takes us through the blimps and zeppelins of World War I and the maturing of airship service after the war, as well as the polar expeditions of Norge and Italia, the disasters of the Hindenburg and Shenandoah, anti-submarine patrols of World War II, and postwar airship aviation.